French patent application number 85 06266 filed April 24, 1985 (equivalent to U.S. Ser. No. 855 258) in the name of the present Assignee describes a franking machine, and more particularly a label dispenser which provides labels of at least two different lengths from a continuous strip, including short labels for receiving a franking print only and long labels on which a slogan may be added. These labels are conveyed to a print head via a guide path fitted with drive wheels.
As can easily be seen from FIG. 2 of said application, the axis of the reel of tape from which the labels are taken and the axes of the rotary cylinders of the print head are mutually parallel. Since the print head is a machine for standing on a work surface with the axis of the print drum being horizontal, it follows that the reel of tape must also have a horizontal axis and that the label dispenser, which is mainly occupied by the reel of tape, is a flat apparatus standing on edge.
This disposition of the component parts of the franking machine suffers from the drawbacks that the label dispenser occupies too much room vertically and that the reel of tape is awkward to replace.
The invention thus seeks to dispose the label dispenser flat relative to the work surface with the print head remaining in the above-described position. Since the label outlet from the label dispenser is no longer parallel to the label inlet to the print head, but is rotated through 90.degree. relative thereto, the invention therefore provides a device for connecting said outlet to said inlet while causing the labels to rotate through 90.degree. about their longitudinal axes.
Naturally, this device providing transport with axial rotation through 90.degree. is not limited to the above-described application. It may be employed generally on any occasion when there is a need to transport objects which are in the form of segments of strip while requiring them to rotate axially through 90.degree.. In addition, the device of the invention is equally applicable to providing axial rotations other than through 90.degree..